FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT DONOVAN - PAGE 3

Bill Donovan no longer has to worry about his horse missing the Preakness field for want of enough earnings."We're in, definitely," the trainer of Dash For Dotty said yesterday morning. "I knew it when they brought over my Preakness jackets."Finally, Dash For Dotty is getting some good fortune after a disappointment in the Blue Grass Stakes and a controversy that kept the gelding out of the Federico Tesio Stakes at Pimlico Race Course, the major prep for the Preakness.Donovan could find easier pickings on the 3-year-old schedule, but the horse's owner, Henry Rosenberg Jr., chairman of the board of Crown Central Petroleum, wanted to take a shot at his hometown's biggest race.

Donovan Truluck, a retired construction superintendent and inventor, died of cancer Thursday at his Arnold home. He was 80. Mr. Truluck was born in Olanta, S.C., and raised in Sumter, S.C. He was 17 when he enlisted in the Navy in 1944 and served aboard the battleship USS Wisconsin as a fireman first class until his discharge in 1946. He was an active member of the USS Wisconsin Association and enjoyed keeping in contact with former shipmates and attending reunions. Mr. Truluck worked for several construction companies, including the John H. Hampshire Construction Co., where he was a carpenter and superintendent for many years.

So, the moment is at hand. The Colts at Baltimore. The great grudge match, hon. Our past against our present. The horseshoe against, well, a logo under pending litigation.When the Ravens play the Colts on Sunday at Camden Yards, will it be a wrenching experience for the largest ex-Colt and continued unofficial soul of Baltimore pro football?"Are you kidding?" Art Donovan said yesterday. "What do I care?"Come on, Artie. You're going to root for your old uniform, right? Out of habit?"I'm going to cheer for the Ravens," he said.

Art Donovan, the colorful and vociferous former Baltimore Colts defensive lineman and their first Hall of Famer, was hospitalized last night after suffering chest pains while dining at a Jacksonville, Baltimore County, restaurant.Carol Smith, nursing supervisor at St. Joseph Hospital in Towson, said today that Donovan was in stable condition.Smith declined to give details about Donovan's condition or reveal if he had suffered a heart attack, though he was being treated in the Coronary Care Unit, where he was said to be "resting comfortably."

That Arthur J. Donovan was exposed to an avenue of higher academics at Boston College, under the jurisdiction of a faculty of Jesuits, considered among the most learned teachers in the world, served him with more value than he pretends.Don't ever make the mistake that Art is a one-dimensional buffoon. His knowledge is extensive, but he prefers to obscure it. Kind of a shtick, as used to be said about vaudeville comedians.Yesterday, at Boston College, his alma mater, he was thrilled to be part of an on-field ceremony in which his jersey was retired.

Art Donovan remembers the first time he was introduced to the Baltimore football fans in 1950."Nobody knew who I was back then," said the Hall of Fame tackle. 'They saw some big, fat guy walk on the field and they said, 'Who the hell is this guy?' "The greeting was quite different last night when Donovan and his former Colts teammates and fellow Hall of Famers Lenny Moore and Johnny Unitas drew the wild cheers of more than 40,000 fans on becoming the first inductees into the Baltimore CFLs' "Ring of Honor.

Because Mike Donovan died in 1918, there's no earthly way he can attend his induction into the Boxing Hall of Fame. Grandson Arthur, the first Baltimore Colt to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame, will be his living substitute. The Donovan between them, Arthur Sr., already is in the Boxing Hall of Fame, located in Canastota, N.Y. A grand family honor. Unprecedented.Three generations, spanning well over a century, have now achieved Hall of Fame status. All hail the Donovans. More than an accident.

Family and friends turned out to get sentimental over Arthur Donovan, a walking-around wonder of the world, on his 70th birthday. It was a time for what he does best -- reminiscing -- only others were doing it. There were cheers and, yes, even a tear or two.It was a party at the Valley Country Club (where else, since he owns the place?) put on with affection and respect for a perpetual good humor man who brings the priceless quality of laughter to followers who surround him as if he's a modern Pied Piper.

WASHINGTON -- Many good newspapermen these days are so successful as television commentators that they're better known in that role than they are for their toil in the trenches of dirty-fingernail print journalism. Robert J. Donovan, who died the other day at 90, was no TV star, although he looked like one, with a Cary Grant smile and the silver mane to go with it. But he, too, was probably better known outside the newspaper racket as a presidential author than for his distinguished career as a reporter that spanned half a century.